Can't Look Into Our Eyes
by Human Customs Still Elude Me
Summary: "No. This isn't right. Earth has nothing. The rest of the galaxy is in our hands already-the Fae are taking over. We need to surrender to the Republic of Mars. Or maybe it's just a foolish woman's sentimentality that will kill millions of people...Isn't that right, Rose Quartz?" *Giant Robot Pilot AU. Cursing/Character Death/Massive destruction warning*
1. Right In the Middle is where it Begins

**...I like this AU, okay?**

* * *

Everything and everyone was quiet. Beach City, now a sprawling metropolis, lay quiet beneath the quiet gaze of two small highschool girls.

"So...Sapph...is there a possibility that we're called in anytime soon?"

"If I knew, I would tell you. I can't see the future, Ruby."

Ruby leaned back against the water tower, her mouth in a crooked expression of neutral annoyance. "Well, work on that."

Sapphire laughed, her single blue eye sparkling, the other covered by a plain white eye patch similar to every anime character's ever. "You're a riot, Ruby." The small teenager turned to face her friend, now serious. "But, really. There is a threat-the Fae are stirring again. And we still haven't trained in the past two weeks. This is a problem, Ruby."

Ruby snorted. "As if! I'm super hard-core! There's no way I'm gonna fall to a Fae...again. Say, are they done fixing my Titan yet?" She took a couple steps forward, gripping the railing with her red-gloved hands. Sapphire raised an eyebrow, leaning back against the railing. "Yes. It is in safety procedures, however. Mine isn't quite full repaired yet."

Ruby whistled. "That's rough, buddy." Sapphire gave a wry smile. "Yes."

They both looked up at the sound of a siren rebounding throughout the city. Lights started going out, one grid at a time. By the time Ruby and Sapphire were down and a few blocks from the Water Tower, the city was engulfed in darkness. They lighted the path with everything they had-hologram watches and one rather small flashlight. It wasn't long before they were located by a red convertible. The driver was recklessly fast-and otherwise obeying all traffic laws. The car pulled over beside them. An albino woman looked out at them from the driver's side, wearing a sleeveless blue shirt and looking rather flustered.

"What on Earth are you doing? Get in, you two!"

Ruby and Sapphire hopped inside the backseat, squishing in next to a small girl with long, white hair.

"Hey, fellow gem-names."

"Hey, Amethyst, Pearl."

"Hello."

"Anything seen yet?"

"Not within sight yet. We think it's a sky-class category B."

Ruby kicked her feet up on the back of the empty passenger seat. "Category B? Easy-peasy! I could take that down single-handed!"

Sapphire blinked. "Ruby, Category A is the strongest, Category Y being the weakest."

Ruby's eyes widened abruptly.

"...Shit..."

Pearl stifled a small laugh, before her expression turned alarmed. "Er...Sapphire, your Titan is still in the first safety-check stage. It might malfunction and..."

Sapphire straightened up. "I'll be fine. No need to worry, Sir."

Pearl hit the gas, forcing everyone into the backs of their seats. "Affirmative. Sorry about this predicament-oh right! GET DOWN!"

The three teenagers in the back obediently dove into the leather floorboard as the remains of a roadblock soared over their heads, bounced off the trunk, and landed on the asphalt. "Ooh...I'm gonna have one hell of a time paying for repairs," Pearl groaned, hitting the brakes rather abruptly. Ruby, Amethyst, and Sapphire stayed in the floorboard as Pearl swiped an Admission Card and hit the gas again. Ruby actually had the courage to whisper, "Man. She's one heck of an unsafe driver," before they stopped once more.

"Okay. Get out. All three of you are needed for this operation."

Pearl came very close to forcibly kicking them out. The three extremely small girls raced for the door to what appeared to be a rather scraped-up and well-sealed storm shelter. Sapphire entered a code into the banged-up keypad, and the door slid into the wall. The three of them raced inside the poorly lit hallway. Dim green light cast shadows onto their determined faces as they raced into a large and very...cyberpunk room. Of course, 2015 cyberpunk. All of it was mildly dated, now.

"You three. Go. Now."

They darted for a heavy metal door set into a side wall. Ruby tugged on it for a moment, before a different girl, slightly older, with short and rather pointy navy blue hair swiped her card and headed inside silently.

"Thanks, Lapis..."

"No problem."

The four teenagers darted into a straight line along with a ten-year-old boy(apparently subject to human experimentation), an eleven-year-old girl(same reason), a tall twenty-year-old woman, a rather bratty teenage boy who was worryingly skinny, and a short blond teenage girl. They stood before a tall woman with spiky yellow hair and reflective glasses hiding her eyes.

"Lapis Lazuli-Offense. Ruby Crystal-Offense. Amethyst Quartz-Backup. Sapphire Corundum-defensive line. Connie Mahaeshwarren and Steven Universe-last resort. You are dismissed. All names not called stay on the sidelines of control room. All others change into uniform. Immediately."

"Yes, Sir!"

All of them followed orders immediately. In a few minutes, all but the unused Pilots were standing in front of black metal doors marked with numbers, wearing black-and-burgundy unitards seemingly made out of thick, waterproof and reflective fabric. They all had gray pads for their joints, and their names marked in distinct white letters on their backs, and the numbers of their respective Titans on their chests.

"Dispatch to Titan Units."

The row of soldiers saluted and went inside their doors after entering a short amount of codes into the keypads.

The Titans stood alone in huge, empty rooms. Each Titan was at least eighty feet tall. They were humanoid-mostly. Some had wings. Some had extra limbs. Some had spiderlike legs instead of two human ones. But they were all heavily armored, with huge fasteners propping them up. They were all hooked up to a huge generator. The small walkway in each, all crowded with workmen, lead to a seat in a pod that was sticking out the forehead of each. Each pod was filled with fairly simple controllers similar to a video game-only this was real life.

Sapphire paid no attention to this as she walked towards the pod. Everyone seemed to single her out as a pilot-she was the only one without the strict uniform. She walked in a straight line to the pod, sat down, pressed a few controls, and flipped a switch. "Titan Three is clear for entrance."

A voice spoke over the crackly speaker in the pod. "Roger that."

Sapphire barely blinked as the pod shot back and was closed into the forehead of her Titan, which was almost completely humanoid-save for the small and useless wings. (She had asked if they were functional.) It was blue and white, with two gleaming red lights for eyes.

A smooth computerized voice spoke throughout the small cockpit. _"Synchronozation-99.9, 100 percent complete."_

Sapphire winced slightly, grimacing as smooth metal machinery tightened around her wrists. She had never really gotten over the shock of becoming pretty much the same being as the Titan.

 _"Launch cycle begins in three, two, one. Cover should be taken for all non-pilot personnel."_

Sapphire stared forward through the bulletproof glass window before her. As she reached above-ground, she noticed something.

"Three to Command. I have noticed a slight...issue with functionality." She could hear her comrades mumble worried remarks over the intercom.

"I Read. The issue?"

Sapphire turned her face towards the speaker. "Left leg artificial nerve connections are pinched. I am concerned about movement stability."

"You will be fine. We have backups on hand if needed for assistance in defeat of the Fae."

"...I understand, sir. I will continue with mission as planned."

"Good."

Sapphire turned her attention to piloting. She readied the electrocution blade, backing up to the small above-ground portion of Attack Force Command. She watched the offense attack the winged Fae that hovered over the city. Sapphire's eye widened as she realized that the birdlike creature was pulling back clearly extendable talons.

"Lazuli! Ruby!" Watch the talons-!" She was cut off as she heard sharp yells of pain as they dodged to the side-but not far enough. Talons speared their legs. As they collapsed into a lake, the talons drew back, ready for another attack, Sapphire jumped for it. She blocked the blows, redirecting them towards herself. She braced herself-and bit her lip as the talons went clear through the torso of her Titan.

Doesn't seem too bad, huh?

Well, they can feel the pain from the wounds and damage inflicted upon their Titans. In other words, Sapphire collapsed immediately. She could hear voices crackling over her intercom, but it didn't matter as she drifted out of consciousness.

 _I apologize for inconveniencing the successful rate of this mission.  
_

* * *

 **Sorry about being nerdy. Anyway, get prepared for more Neon Genesis Evangelion, Attack on Titan, and Puella Magi Madoka Magica references in the future:) Mostly Evangelion and Madoka. I mean, it's going to have some symbolism and is about giant robots. I mean, how nerdy can ya get?  
**


	2. Twenty-One Hours

Sapphire opened her eyes to a white ceiling with neat, uniform tile. She turned her head to face the light source-a window with thin white curtains waving in the wind slowly, with the white sunlight shining into the hospital room.

She sat up. It was no surprise to wake up wearing a white nightgown, sitting in a hospital. When a Titan was damaged like that, the Pilot took considerable damage to themselves. For example, when Ruby's Titan had been stabbed clear through the heart, she had been unconscious for two weeks. A blow to the central torso was no problem, compared to what had happened last time.

"Corundum."

Sapphire started, turning to face the voice of her supervisor, Colonel Diamond.

"Sir."

Diamond pushed her glasses further up her nose. "This is your second loss in a row. Do you have an explanation?"

Sapphire looked down at the white bedspread, tightening her grip on the top. "My Titan was damaged both times. The first time I was unable to move swiftly due to remaining damage to the sides and chest causing discomfort, and the second time to reduced leg mobility, Sir."

Diamond took a few steps forward. "We've noticed a hardware flaw. We are completely resetting the systems in order to repair the artificial nerve damage. You are required to be at headquarters tomorrow at noon. Do not be late. That will be all." Sapphire nodded, keeping her eyes on the bed. "Yes, Sir. I understand."

She watched Diamond leave the room. The doors slid and locked shut. Sapphire laid back down, her abdomen still hurting somewhat. She wasn't on any method of life support-she hadn't lost any blood, her airways were fine, everything seemed to be fine-just remaining soreness. The holographic calendar on the wall read September 4'th. Five days after the event of the Fae attack. She must be in the hospital because her condition was consistently unstable. She was probably under watchful eye.

She covered what used to be her left eye with her hand, staring at the ceiling once more. This was going to be an uneventful day. Just lying in a hospital bed waiting for noon tomorrow. Her usual life, in other words. At least it was better than the mission before last-her Titan's head and legs had been chopped off. Talk about painful.

She closed her eyes, sighing and letting her hand fall to her side.

* * *

Ruby punched her bag angrily. Still twenty-one hours until she went back to Headquarters. Something about testing or whatever. She didn't really care. She left the public gym without a word to anyone. What was even the point? They'd all die if there was a ground-class category-A Fae. Sky-class was easy-they couldn't fly very high. They only got tough once they got tougher than category-C. All ground-class Fae were difficult. They all had increased maneuverability, speed, and had very strong kicking power. In other words, one blow per Titan, even if all of them were deployed, and Beach City was as good as dead.

She jogged back to her empty apartment. Usually, Pearl and Sapphire were home. But Sapphire was still hurt or something, and Pearl was working late, repairing the hard-drives for Titan 3. It was pretty damaged, and there had already been issues with the computers. It was pretty old. Titans 1&2 had been destroyed right as Titan 5 was finished almost a decade ago.

Ruby dropped her gray bag onto the floor of her tiny room. It was barely bigger than a closet, with enough room for a cheap loft bed and a dresser not much bigger than her torso. And she was five feet tall.

She climbed up and flopped onto her bed. The low ceiling made her uncomfortable, and there was just a curtain in stead of a door, but it was still a pretty great room. She wasn't appreciating this right now, though. Completely alone in a run-down apartment. Dogs barked outside. The blinds over her window let small slits of light onto the carpet. Everything about this part of town was pretty bleak. At least power outages only happened pretty much bi-anually.

The door opened. She heard Pearl's voice call her name.

"Yeah?"

Pearl stepped through the curtain. She looked exhausted. "How are you, Ruby? I didn't get to see you this morning. How was school?"

Ruby jumped from her bed. "I'm okay. School sucked though. Everyone was, like, really rude about Sapphire and Amethyst missing. They pestered me and Lazuli about it. I mean, they also asked why I missed for two days."

"Did you answer?"

Ruby laughed. "Ha! I'd get court-martialed for that. I just told them that a tree fell in the fight and I couldn't get out of my house until they cut it up." Ruby faced Pearl, her expression darkening abruptly. "Is Sapphire okay? I know that Amethyst discharged a couple days ago but is duty-shirking, but Sapphire...?"

Pearl smiled. "She'll be out tomorrow at eleven. She's going straight to Headquarters, though. It's a shame that her Titan is faulty. She's really a very good pilot. Just look at what she did after her Titan's left leg was cut off three weeks ago."

Ruby nodded. "Right. Thanks for telling me. You should probably sleep though."

Pearl grinned shakily. "For a fifteen year old with anger issues, you're pretty sensible." Ruby laughed quietly. "Heh, I guess so. Er, when I'm not fighting." Pearl smiled, placed her hand on Ruby's head, turned, and walked off to her own tiny room.

* * *

At noon, Sapphire was standing in Titan Control Room next to Ruby. Everyone was shooting her weird looks. Judging from the snippets of conversations she had heard, her Titan had been torn up more, even after she was unconscious. Thankfully, Lazuli had kicked the shit out of the Fae before it had pushed Sapphire past the brink

She didn't recognize the man standing before her. He was nervously shuffling papers. "Would you two change into your...ah...clothes that you pilot in?"

Ruby and Sapphire exchanged a glance. "...You mean our Enhancement Suits?" Ruby asked disbelievingly.

"Uh..." The man flipped through the pages. "Erm, yes! Yes, that is it. Enhancement Suits."

Ruby and Sapphire left the room to change, watching the face-palming employees restraining laughs. Who even was that guy?

As they entered the room divided by a thick curtain, Ruby voiced what they were both thinking. "Say, where's the Colonel?"

Sapphire shrugged, before realizing that Ruby couldn't see her. "I don't know. Last time I saw her was yesterday. I think she's overseeing in a different room." Ruby seemed to stumble a little. "I see. Kinda weird, not having the watchful eye of a silent overseer watching us every second, huh?"'

"No, not really." Sapphire started changing. "Although I suppose it is rather difficult to request orders in this situation."

Ruby laughed purposely quietly, despite the soundproof walls. "Yeah. I'd rather have Diamond watching us. She's, like, unphasable."

Sapphire lifted up the Enhancement Suit after undressing. "She's not unphasable. That's a state reached by Gods, not humans. Especially not humans who are attached to a position of total power and grow fearful without it." She could practically feel Ruby shrugging. "Yeah. That's a pretty high bar."

Sapphire tightened the suit with the press of a button, and lifted the two headpieces from the small shelf, fastening the clips into her hair and placing the triangular bit of metal hanging from it to the right point on her face. "I'm ready. Are you?"

"Yep-er-doodles."

They left the changing room at almost the same moment. It had only been a couple of minutes, so nobody was annoyed at them for chatting. Nobody knew they had uttered a word. They walked back to the unfamiliar man standing in the middle, looking at the screen displaying the two Titans. Sapphire's was still damaged, she noticed with a cringe.

"Well, boss?" Ruby asked. The man spun around. "Oh! Uh, I'm just filling in so I do not know what to do in this...particular...situation. Uh, Pearl Mollusk! Could you take charge?"

Pearl looked up. "Er, of course." She darted up to the front. "You two, go to your respective Titans and prepare to enter. Sapphire, your test will be mentally arduous. Are you tired?"

Sapphire shook her head. "No, Sir."

Pearl smiled. "That's good. Ruby, you're just doing average repair drills. Nothing special-you'll be leaving long before Sapphire..."


	3. A Scientist's Guilt

Sapphire stared at her knees in the cockpit of Titan Three. The nerve system was near-completely repaired, but she still felt a dull, throbbing pain in her stomach and legs. Probably chipped artificial nerves.

"Corondum, how much damage is there leftover?"

Sapphire didn't move to respond. "Legs and abdomen have some damage remaining." She could hear Pearl's concerned noise, and vaguely the statements of others in the room. "Can you operate properly, or do we have to cut off nerve connections?"

"I'll be fine. I can ignore the damage." Sapphire lifted her hand to push a strand of blue hair out of her eye, her fingers brushing the wire poking into her cheek, before she lowered her hand to the controls once more.

"Alright, were going to start re-downloading everything. Please concentrate on synching yourself."

Sapphire ignored the pain, and focused on being one with the Titan. She closed her eyes, breathed evenly, and attempted to ignore the stifling silence. It was eating at the edges of her mind, dragging her to think of the darker things that she had seen.

No, no, she wouldn't think of that. She pushed emotion from every corner of her mind. She was aroused from a thoughtless state, growing steadily more aware of the injuries and the situation her Titan was in, by Pearl saying in a rather tired voice;"Sapphire, we're taking it for a movement test. Were enabling movement in...ten seconds, starting...now."

Ten seconds later, she felt something malfunction and shatter. She gasped, hunching over a bit more. "Sapphire, there was a bit of a malfunction. We'll have it fixed in ten minutes, no problem. It's too inconveniencing to have you get out. Do you think you could stay in?"

Sapphire regained her composure. "I'll manage." She straightened up and leaned against the back of the uncomfortable seat. "Alright. We're switching to video and audio so that we know if something happens," Pearl said through the intercom. She glanced at the holographic screen that popped up. It showed herself, looking perfectly blank, as if the almost unbearable pain throughout her body was nonexistent. She turned her eyes to the controls. They were just two round protrusions from a dashboard-like surface in front of a screen that showed what was in front of her. Right now, though, it was dark. The round devices had triggers inside, allowing her to shoot her rifle. Metal cords attached to her Enhancement Suit on her legs, torso, arms, and back. Not very many, but enough to input the correct information. She was fastened into place by iron bands over her ankles and a non-technical cord attached to her back.

Ten minutes passed. The pain lessened. Pearl spoke once more. "Alright, could you try walking?"

Sapphire nodded, knowing that they could see her. She went through the movements of taking three steps forward and three back. She moved her arms. She turned her head. She did everything right.

"Okay, you can get out now. The bridge is out. you can eject now," Pearl said. Sapphire did the necessary things to eject.

* * *

Pearl assumed everything was going alright. She wasn't paying attention to the screen that was split between exterior and cockpit of Titan Three. She thought everyone was fine for about thirty seconds-before she heard a high-pitched scream in her earpiece. Everyone wearing one jumped in surprise. The other employees turned in confusion at Pearl responding swiftly and loudly. "Sapphire! What's wrong? Are you okay?"

All she heard was Sapphire's unsteady breathing. She looked up as her coworker, Peridot, spoke to her. "Mollusk! The nerve connections went haywire. The extra length of needle, reserved for security use, went straight into her at all connections. Her life is at stake. We need to get her out as soon as possible."

Pearl bit her lip, setting her prioities. "Eject the cockpit!"

"It's not taking the signal, sir!"

Pearl took a step forward. "Can we deactivate the security?"

"No, sir."

She looked up at the screen on the wall above Control, half of which showing the twitching Titan. The other half, however, showed Sapphire, sitting in the cockpit, her teeth grinding together and her hands clutching at the controls. Every inch of her body showed pain. The audio just made the picture more horrible.

Pearl gritted her teeth. "Manually get her out. It's our only option."

"Yes, sir!"

She watched them open the door and run into the huge room. Making a split second decision, she darted in after them. She adjusted her mouthpiece slightly. "Sapphire?"

Nothing.

She pressed a button, redirecting the one-way signal to Ruby.

"Ruby. Get in here."

"What happened? I don't know what's going on! I just got out like three minutes ago, but everybody's panicking and I don't know what-"

"The security systems activated on Sapphire. We're getting her out manually. You're probably the only one here that's familiar enough with the system to hack into it. Titan Four has the same program."

She could hear Ruby take in a sharp breath. "Shit. I'll be there in a minute."

Shortly later, Ruby arrived beside Pearl, still wearing her Enhancement Suit. She stared up at the Titan before her. "Is she gonna be okay? I heard her scream through my earpiece a minute ago, but they cut me off..."

Pearl looked down at the small girl. "I don't recommend turning it back on. Her Titan being damaged is one thing, but her being stabbed with six-inch long needles is another. I swear, if they even try to take out these connections, I'm going to murder them."

Ruby grinned nervously. "Yeah...we really don't want our best Pilot to die from blood loss."

After about thirty minutes, they managed to pry the cockpit out. At this point, Sapphire was barely even conscious. They carefully cut the wires, detached the cord from her back, and took out the metal bands from over her ankles. Her breathing was ragged, her only visible eye closed. Blood stained her lip.

Pearl's eyes widened in horror. She was raising this kid-and here she was, on the brink of death, lying on a stretcher, being carried by two EMT's.

She looked down at the ground. Ruby was frozen in place-not surprising. She and Sapphire had been raised together from age three. They were, in essence, sisters. They did everything together. Ruby was horrified to see something she held so dearly horribly injured.

She placed a hand on Ruby's shoulder. "Come on. Let's go."

Ruby looked up and nodded mutely. Pearl forced a smile. "You should go change into regular clothes, though."

The small girl laughed nervously. "Um, yes. Yeah. I should. Bye."

Pearl watched her leave, and looked down at the ground. What had she done? She had been the one to glaze over the security program, dismiss it as fine the way it was...

This was all her fault.

* * *

 **Uh...sorry for the long chapter, dude. And how fast-paced this thing is. I can't really write things that develop slowly.  
**


	4. Fighting To Distract

Fighting was easy. It was simple to attack the punching bag hanging from the gym ceiling, circling around, ignoring the stares of the people around her. They were saying she was weak. Well, think this is weak? She threw a punch hard enough that a muscular man had to dodge out of its path so it hit the wall instead. He left muttering about grade it swung back, she kicked it back. It stopped just short of the wall. She looked to see who had stopped it. A tanned guy with bleach-blond hair looked down at Ruby with obvious scorn.

"The little kid's gym is over there-the basketball court. This place is fifteen and up." He pointed at the door. She gritted her teeth. "I AM fifteen! I have to practice for me job, so get out of my way."

The man smirking, tossing his beach-blond hair. Ruby hated him instantly. "What kind of job could a little kid like you have? Volunteer lifeguard's asisstant?" His friends laughed in the background. Ruby pushed a strand of her dark brown hair out of her face. "I could show you...You'd just have to come with me for a little bit. After all, it is pretty wimpy. You wouldn't be impressed. I just like watching your stupid little ignorant faces grinning with delight when you realize that your blatantly obvious guess was right." She faked cheerfulness. The guy shrugged. "Eh, why not. Go on, little kid."

Ruby turned and left, beckoning. She walked along, listening to his flip flops against the tile floor. She nodded to the receptionist who she was on decent terms with. After about a minute they left through the back the door into the small, loud area by the backup generators. (There had been a blackout after the most recent fight and gyms were last priority.)

She reached into her small pants pocket and pulled out her wallet. He raised an eyebrow as she hesitated. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, show me the wimp card."

"I wouldn't be saying that if I were you."

"Well, you're not, are ya, little chick?"

"I don't think you can handle the truth."

She didn't see it coming. He grabbed her by the front of the shirt, slamming her against the wall. "Shut up and show, you little-"

"Uh-uh. Don't insult me."

She pulled out a white ID card. It had her age, a picture of her, the Kronos Orginazation symbol and name...and her occupation.

The jerk read out loud. "Kronos Orginazation.." There was mild surprise in his voice. "Ruby G. Crystal, age fifteen, born July 30'th, 3005...occupation...What the-"

Ruby grinned. "Go on."

"Uh..."

"Go on. I dare you. Otherwise you would've lost to humanity's third best...read it!"

He gulped. "Uhm...Pilot of Titan Unit Four..."

Ruby laughed. "The one and only. Now, I'm going to get down..."She lashed out with her leg, kicking him in the chest. He jerked back in surprise, rubbing the pressure point she had hit as Ruby landed neatly on the concrete.

"Training, bro! By the way, if there were security cameras going right now, you would've been court-martialed. But I made sure there aren't, even though you're a sexist jerk who just works out to impress the ladies who have literally no brains! Like almost all of my classmates."

"Uh...?"

* * *

Pearl wrote absentmindedly. She was idly going through random math problems that came to mind, waiting for her break to end.

"If this and this are...then X equals the same as Y..."

"Hey, Pearl!"

She turned around. A tall woman with a suit and traingular hair stood behind her, smiling.

"O-Oh! Hello, Sardonyx. How's...How's it going?"

"Pretty good. You?"

Pearl smiled nervously. "Um...Fine. I'm fine." Sardonyx's smile faded. "You don't seem like it." Pearl flushed pale pink. "Well...um...Well, the situation with Sapphire is tiring, and I've been working nights for a couple days, so I'm not used to it yet..."

"Seems like a lot more than that." Sardonyx sat down in the desk chair next to Pearl. "Lemma guess-Resipisco?"

Pearl straightened up, her pen dropping to the floor. "...Almost." Sardonyx narrowed her dark eyes.

"Let us ignore for the time being, yes?"

* * *

 **Haha go look up resipisco in google translate. You still won't figure out anything. Uh, unless you've seen Puella Magi Madoka Magica, read my mind, watched Gravity falls, Evangelion(congratulations), and the entirety of my crappy Warriors fic with Latin titles.**

 **Good luck!**


	5. Just Another Rainy Day

**Hello, Nerv-um, wrong show. Hello, Kronos employees. Welcome to yet another installment of this official(ha as if) report of the events of the ongoing Fae invasion.**

 **Just to clear some job things up-Sardonyx and Pearl are computer programmers, Peridot is an engineer, Rose and Yellow Diamond are supervisors who hold a lot of power, and Garnet..you'll see:)**

* * *

Lapis Lazuli looked blankly at herself in the mirror. She touched her dark, blue-black hair that hung by her eyes, brushing it away. What was the point of all this? She lived in a tiny four-room apartment on Kronos Orginazation-owned land. It was just the poorer employees, the younger Pilots, maybe a few family members under government protection...

Block A, Apt. 7B. Second floor. Turn right. Seventh door to the left. Try not to fall onto the parking lot. The outdoor walkway doesn't have rails. The directions she always gave.

Lapis picked up her jacket, pulling it on and stepping out the bedroom door. She strode toward the main door, eternally slightly ajar. She left her home. It was raining, but she didn't mind. Thunder cracked above her, setting off the dogs in the residential district nearby. Barking barely reached her ears.

She pulled out her water-proof phone, calling her coworker. To her surprise, she picked up.

"Yeah, Lazuli?"

"Crystal. I was wondering if Sapphire was in stable condition."

Silence.

"Crystal, did your connection sever?" She could hear Crystal laughing hoarsly.

"Hah! No, I'm just pissed you asked that. I'm going to hang up now."

 _If you wish to continue your message, speak af-_

Lapis ended the call, pocketing her phone once more. She turned her eyes to the towers looming in the distance. She could see the red lights flashing on the top.

"I wonder how Mollusk is doing..."

* * *

Peridot flopped down on Pearl's couch. "So, as I was saying, Crystal had, like, a huge argument with Quartz and switched over to our group! Ain't that annoying? If anybody's gonna screw something up, it's gonna be her.

Pearl sipped her tea. "I believe she was subject to human experimentation as an infant. She's probably going to be in charge of general check-ups. I believe she is the answer to the blatant power issue we've been having for the past twenty years." She looked up at the sound of footsteps. "Oh, Ruby! Your sister is going to be in town starting tomorrow. She'll be living down the street a little ways."

Ruby grinned. "Seriously? I haven't seen Garnet in, like, three years! Aw man, this is gonna be great!" Peridot groaned. "Aw, c'mon! You didn't say Ruby'd be here?" Pearl smirked. "She and Sapphire live with me. If you don't like her, you shouldn't come over."

"...My house smells like cat litter..."

"Well, maybe you should clean it more often."

"Maybe you could stop being so snarky."

Ruby snorted amusedly. "Oh, pot and kettle."

All three of them looked up as thunder boomed overhead, a lot louder than usual. The lights flickered before returning to their usual steadiness.

"...Think we should check in on that?"

"That's your best idea in a while, Peridot."

Pearl picked up her phone, tapped twice(she had Headquarters on her homescreen), and lifted it up to her ear.

"Hello? Yes, this is a Kronos official. Mollusk. Programmer. Titans three through five. No. May I speak to the person currently in charge of the city's power supply?" After a moment of Pearl looking exasperated, somebody finally responded."Yes. No. Was that thunder that caused the power to switch off for roughly ten seconds something to worry about?"

A moment of silence.

"...Oh. I understand. Is Ruby needed?"

Ruby and Peridot exchanged a glance.

"Oh, Alright. Thank you, Dewey."

Pearl hung up. "Sky-class Category Y. The coast guard took it out. Three injured and one ship lost. Not too bad."

"Heh, yeah. Man, I'm so glad I don't have to go out there...again...Seriously, what's with the amount of Fae recently?" She waited while Pearl took another sip of her tea. After a few seconds, she answered. "We're not quite sure. Personally, I think that, um-" Her eye twitch as Peridot made an exasperated expression, waving her hand about. "-The Den recently discovered beneath Germany is more active that usual, and as most of the islands in the Atlantic were sunk five hundred years ago, and Eurasia's defenses in general are very low, they manage to reach us very swiftly due to the current..global weather situation."

"...English, please?"

"They're hatching and coming over the Atlantic."

"...Oh."

Peridot placed a gloved finger to her lips. "Hm...That was a pretty good explanation, P. How's about publishing that?" At Pearl's murderous expression, Peridot quickly backtracked. "Uh..in a report. So that you, like, _wont_ get court-martialed."

"...Hm. Theories about scientific matters requiring serious analysis are not my expertise. I'm a computer programmer, Dot."

Ruby snickered. "Dot? Seriously? That's, like, a name for toddlers!" Peridot coughed extremely angrily. "Uh, I'm twenty-five! I'm taking that as a personal offense, twerp!"

Pearl interrupted the dawning argument. "Sorry, but I have to stop you before this become World War XXII."

The other two stared blankly at her.

"Ex Ex Eye Eye?"

"Twenty-two, Peridot. Twenty-two."

"22 is already dawning, P. It would be more accurate to say-"

Ruby's phone ringing interrupted them abruptly. She fumbled around in her pocket for a moment before pulling it out and picking up. "Yeah, Lazuli?" Peridot and Pearl watched Ruby's expression change to blank in a matter of seconds. She remained silent for a few seconds.

"Hah! No, I'm just pissed you asked that. I'm going to hang up now." She removed the phone from her ear and turned it off angrily.

Pearl and Peridot remained silent, watching Ruby go off to her room. Peridot lowered her voice to a whisper. "What's with her?" Pearl bit her lip. "She is taking Sapphire's condition badly." Peridot bit her lip. "Ah."

* * *

Lapis kept staring up at the towers looming over the city. Cooling towers, to be precise. It was scary to other people, considering the poor location, but she didn't mind. They were shutting the plant down soon anyway. About a month, she had heard. The ever increasing chance of it being destroyed or having a total meltdown was driving people away, and considering this was one of the few places left in the US that wasn't damaged in some way by space travel, nuclear war, or even just the massive floods of 2050, that was saying a lot. Beach City had been through a bit of shit in the past thousand years, but at least it wasn't Kansas City...

She sighed, pushing her hair out of her eyes. It was a shame that the records from 2016 were fuzzy and unclear. After all, paper and computers don't last very long. There were rumors of alien invasion-shortly before a massive war that flattened certain parts of the US and Asia. For example, it was a popular tourist attraction to take submarine rides into the sunk parts of Japan.

This planet was barely worth living on anymore. Unfortunately, unlike roughly six billion other people, she didn't have the option to bail and go to ther other side of the Milky Way.

She turned her eyes away from the nuclear plant and kept walking down the rainy sidewalk, alongside a busy road filled with headlights and honking, all of them blissfully unaware of the rapidly rising radiation in the air. Of the Fae being attracted to the large Human settlement. Not even of the blatantly obvious amount of enemies they had...

It had been awhile since it had rained like this.

* * *

 **Ugh...So much writer's block. So little giant robot anime I'm in the mood to watch.  
**

 **Yes, I know everybody's a little out of character. They're humans now(woo) and have had either worse or way better lives. Garnet will make a crushingly awkward appearance in the next chapter.**

 **R &R!**


	6. Three Years and Nothing's Changed

**Just so you know, the plot will be more solid from now on. I started watching a really good show about a space war a bit after last time I updated.**

* * *

Rear Admiral Yellow Diamond stared up at the screen showing the movements of Titan Five, and Lazuli's movements within. Everything was going well-it was just an average practice. Mind-numbingly boring, took about three hours, but was vital for Humans in general.

"Sir!"

She turned around. A small, red-headed girl wearing the average non-combat uniform stood, her back straight as a rod, saluting her superior despite the fact that Diamond was hated throughout the galaxy.

"Yes, Sergeant Andromeda?"

"Sir, Commodore Crystal has arrived and wishes to review her assignment with you. What should I tell her?"

Diamond blinked. "Tell her I'll be there in a few minutes." Andromeda saluted once more. She stared after her for a moment. Oliver De Andromeda. Her parents must have been from the French colony on Earth's only ally planet, Ptolemy. She returned her gaze to the sixteen-year-old girl in the cockpit. How long had it been since she was that age? Ten years? Twenty? It didn't really matter. Age, after all, is only relative in this new world.

She turned, leaving the room. A few subordinates rushed to salute as she walked by-but most of the people she walked past were Kronos employees. They only noticed her a little, for most of them were busy with papers or chatting with friends. Diamond turned a sharp corner, ramming straight into a tall albino woman.

"Oh-oh! Are you alright?"

Diamond rubbed the spot on her shoulder where the woman had rammed into her. She looked down at her, taking in her appearance. Roughly five-ten, with big blue eyes, a blue-green zipped up jacket, a purple skirt, with pointy yellow-white hair with dyed pink fringe around her face.

"I am fine." Diamond circled around the flustered and birdlike woman. "I apologize for my misconduct...Mollusk." She squinted briefly at the nametag on the woman's chest. "Er, um, I..." Diamond left, striding swiftly through the hallway. She couldn't shake the feeling that she had seen Pearl Mollusk before. Something about her expression, probably. She got that a lot from Kronos employees.

Diamond stopped at the room where she assumed Crystal was. She opened the door and stepped inside, immediately biting her lip angrily. Commodore Crystal had her arms and legs crossed, sitting in a wheeled desk chair, staring at the ceiling. She was wearing the same uniform as Andromeda(who was standing against the wall outside), albeit with different markings on the collar of the red jacket. Her glasses reflected the light, hiding her eyes. Diamond had only met her once before-and hadn't seen her eyes due to the helmet she had been wearing.

The Commodore jumped up, saluting. Her glasses slid down her eyes, revealing her heterochromia. One bright red eye, one bright blue eye. Both seemed to pierce straight through Diamond. The Commodore's square hair was a bit of a mess-she had probably been rushed here, as usual with most transfers.

"Commodore Crystal."

"Rear Admiral Diamond."

She was snarky, it seemed, based off her tone. The twenty-five year old dropped her arm to her side. She maintained her expression, eyebrows pointing down to her determined, mismatched eyes.

"You are here to request your assignment information?"

"That is correct."

Diamond contemplated for a moment, trying to remember from the situation she had read the day previously. "As the status on other planets, is stable, and the interstellar and inter-galactic pioneering is going well...and of course, single-planet revolutions have been quieted down, you have no reason to be on the front lines, or otherwise. You are to be a backup pilot for Titan Ten, Coeus. If owrst comes to worse, you will be the temporary pilot of Titan Three, Atlas."

Crystal couldn't contain her surprise. "Uh-Yes, sir! Should I register today?"

"No. You have the week off."

"Yes, sir."

Diamond nodded briefly, turned, and left the room.

* * *

Ruby absentmindedly lay on the couch, propped up on her elbows, writing a report on the history of Mars.

"The first man-made item to be placed on Mars was the Viking Lander in one thousand, nine hundred, seventy-six, well over a thousand years ago...the first step towards the current population of-UGGH..."

Her turmoil was interrupted by a knock at the door, She glanced towards the bathroom, where Pearl was showering. Darn it. She hated answering the door. "Just a sec!" She tossed her notebook and pen to the side (why the heck was paper even still in use? they'd had a replacement since longer than light-speed travel, a relatively recent invention. Five hundred years.) She hopped up, unlocked the door, and opened the scraped-up and thin barrier. She stared in shock for a moment, jaw dropping.

"Whoo-hoo!"

She lunged forward, locking her arms around Garnet's neck in something between a choke-hold and a hug.

"Chill, little sis! It's only been like...okay, it's been three years. Whoo!"

Ruby continued to cling to her older sister's neck. "You saved me from the horrors of my inter-planetary history class..." She could practically feel Garnet's eyebrows raising. "Um, you don't like that? It's, like, the only class worth taking, next to PE..."

Garnet forcibly pushed Ruby away. "Anyway, where's Pearl?"

"Shower."

"Oh, right." She glanced around. "Say, is Sapph at one of her weird things? Doesn't she live with you now?" Garnet's expression returned to it's normal blank state at Ruby's expression. "...Did something happen, Ruby?"

Ruby rocked back on her heels. "Uh...Titan Three's security system activated on her, and...uh...she's in the ICU right now. Has been for about two weeks..." She looked up at her sister once more, unsurprised by Garnet's suddenly angered expression. The tall woman smacked her fist into her other palm. "Damn it! I swear, if I get my hands on that filthy Quartz's neck..."

Ruby reached out to Garnet's arm. "Sis, it wasn't her fault. It was just a system malfunction. If it's anyone's fault, it'd be Peridot Olivine's, or Sardonyx Towers...Or heck, the one who actually designed the program, Fleet Admiral Triangulum!"

Garnet's expression softened slightly. "You're right. I'm just a bit fired up right now, that's all."

Ruby smiled faintly. "Actually, I think everyone involved with this is right now. I mean, Towers and Minira are constantly at each others throats right now. Admittedly, that isn't surprising..."

Garnet grinned. "Just like their entire life. Man, even though we were in the same class, I sure turned out differently from Pearl, Dot, Sardonyx, Sugilite, and the rest..."

The conversation ended on a happy note, the same as it had begun. Eventually, Ruby recieved a three-hour lecture on the history of Mars over the past...while.

The rain continued over Beach City.

* * *

 **Okay, so, Garnet is usually a spaceship pilot who can also pilot Titans no problem. And the Titans have names. After the Greek Titans. And the oldest and ruler of the universe, Kronos(or Cronus, alternately) is the name of the orginazation. I actually think these things out now. Two of these characters are named after galaxies. (Fleet Admiral Triangulum and Oliver De Andromeda.)**

 **R &R!**


	7. Those Quiet City Lights

Garnet stared out the window, her glasses reflecting the light as usual. She had just moved into her apartment-it hadn't taken long. After all, it wasn't like there was much to move. She turned her face away from the light, turning back into the four-room apartment.

"Huh. This is like the place where I grew up, only cleaner."

Garnet took a few steps away from the window and sat down on the floor, leaning against the wall. She fumbled idly with the hem of her vibrantly red jacket, staring at the plain beige wall across from her. Her battered keytar lay against it, amid a mess of sheet music. Aside from that and a few books and clothes, she really hadn't brought anything. Honestly, having furniture was a waste. She had blankets. And a blow-up mattress. That counted, right?

"...Holy shit, this sucks."

She flopped her head back against the wall. The popcorn ceiling was pretty clearly falling off.(wait, why the hell did those still exist? Society had reverted somewhat, but still...Man.) She combed her fingers idly through her thick, messy hair. Mostly, she was waiting for someone to knock at the door. Her old friend Peridot was coming over. They had grown up together, although Dot was four years older-and had never caught up in height, but made up for it in aggressive platform heels and those weird robot arms.

Three quiet knocks at the door. Garnet jumped up, opening it almost immediately. She was pleasantly surprised by who it was, however.

"Oh, hey, Pearl. How's it going?"

Pearl rocked back on her heels a little. "Fine, I guess. Dot couldn't make it, so I thought that I should tell you, since I got off early..."

Garnet grinned. "Hey, thanks. Good thing you remembered that my phone broke a few months ago." Pearl smiled, matching Garnet's expression perfectly. "Anyway, I brought your work schedule, which is the official reason I'm here." She handed Garnet a small flash drive. "Um, you do have a place to print this out, right?"

Garnet shrugged. "Eh, library probably has some printers."

"...Did you spend the last three years on one of the Brittish colonies?"

"Five years, actually."

Pearl stifled a laugh. "Your voice sounds cool now, G."

"It didn't before?"

"...You sounded really, really, normal..."

* * *

Ruby stared at her hands, unwilling to look at the hospital bed before her.

"So...uh...I don't know if you can hear me or anything, but...Garnet's back in town. She lives down the street now. Pearl's gonna go and see her before she comes home. I think she'll come you soon, but I;m not really sure..." Ruby lifted her eyes to Sappphire's face. She looked perfectly calm-as if she were merely asleep, and not in a coma that had already lasted two and a half weeks. The doctors were saying that it'd be okay. That she'd wake up soon, and everything would be back to normal.

Ruby couldn't help but feel that they were liars.

"I miss you, Sapph. Think you'll wake up soon?" Ruby stared at her closed right eye, the scar over her left...and closed her own eyes. "I just...I think that maybe, you'd know what to do if this happened to me. I'm really bad at dealing with this. Without you, Kronos...Humans...Earth...Well, it's like betting them all on a bad team! Without you, all of us...we just...we don't know what to do. I-I'm sorry, Sapph. If I had seen all that damage coming, then maybe you wouldn't have had to do that stupid thing with Atlas..."

A nurse knocked on the door and came in. "Ma'am, it's closing time." Ruby nodded and stood up. "Thank you for telling me. I'll get goin' now."

Ruby nodded politely as she went past the nurse and stepped into the hallway. Like most hospitals, it was white with the occasional colored tile, and occasional painting by various artists. Very nice, if you think about it. It was efficient, too, with everything accessible. Not surprising, considering it's location at a large peninsula sticking out into the Atlantic, with huge lights and a constant buzz of human activity(not to mention the remains of a past land sticking up out of the ocean), all of which attracted Fae. It was designed to house up to twenty thousand people at a time, and was mostly underground, which helped the security issues.

Ruby opened the front doors of the pale pink hospital, leaving the building and stepping into the cold winter air. She flipped up the collar of her jacket-Pearl would be annoyed, but it was windy, to say the least. She jerked her head up at the sound of an emergency helicopter, the streamlined vehicle landing on the roof behind her. She didn't bother watching the exchange behind her, and started walking down the street.

Leaves blew around at her feet. Ruby broke into a run, darting for the only place she could think of. As the wind hit her in the face, she had to hold back tears as she skidded to a halt at the nearest train station. It only took about ten minutes for one of the bullet trains to arrive. She boarded as fast as possible, showing her train pass as she went. She took a seat towards the back of the first compartment, absently fiddling with the hem of her jacket. and staring at the incomprehensible scenery that flashed by. Buildings, trees, oceans, and the city lights on the horizon as they skirted around the edge, all blurred into one as it started to rain. Before long she pulled out her phone, calling Pearl, telling her that she'd be late.

After about twenty minutes of circling the edge of New Beach City at lower speeds than average, the train stopped at a station downtown. She got off, running through the rain as she left the building. The streetlights lit the way, showing the rapidly forming ice on the streets and sidewalks. Sooner or later, this would turn into snow. Ruby kept running, her shoes gripping the ice easily as she ran. The shops and apartments on either side of the street cast long shadows from the cars and the occasional other person. After about ten more minutes of running, she stopped at her favorite spot in the city-the gym.

It was about fifty years old. It was bit of an eyesore. The robotic janitors left something to be desired. No one seemed to care, though. It had everything needed, from a good basketball team to an advanced ballet course upstairs, which Sapphire took while Ruby did her own thing, usually with Amethyst.

"Hey, Ruby!"

She looked up. One of Sapphire's classmates, Lila, called out from across the lobby. Ruby nodded in response, waiting for Lila's coming statement. "Where's Sapphire been lately? She's missed the pass ten classes, and the Nutcracker's coming up pretty soon, so..."  
Oh. Right. The met four times a week.

"She...got in a car accident. She'll probably have to miss the performance." Ruby spun around and left the lobby, grimacing at Lila aying something despairingly about the understudy for whatever role Sapph had gotten being kinda bad.

Ruby let the glass door to the gym close. It was empty, which wasn't very surprising. Eight in the evening on a Wednesday? Everybody was probably gonna be tired and at home. Ruby leaning heaviliy against the wall, staring at the ceiling. Classical music came through somewhat. Lila had probably been late. She closed her eyes, crossed her arms, and let out a heavy breath.

The rain continued to fall heavily over the huge city.


	8. This Is War

**I've started watching Gundam. Brace yourselves for nerdiness in the upcoming chapters.**

* * *

Garnet stared down at the unconscious form of her friend. She was a good ten years older, but despite that, she couldn't help but like such a nice girl...

Sapphire had been in a coma for three weeks now. Her wounds were finally healing, and her condition was finally stable. The doctors were saying that she would be waking up fairly soon. Everything about her was perfectly stable-her body was still damaged, but not beyond repair. Her brain was perfectly fine, she could breath by herself, she wasn't losing any blood...they were at a complete loss as to why she hadn't woken up yet. They said otherwise, but Garnet could tell just by their speech patterns and facial expression.

She kept looking down at the slim, blue-haired girl, still not sitting down. Garnet closed her eyes for a moment, tightening her hands into fists. Her uniform turned from red to pale pink in the white light, the white pants almost disappearing from view against the white wall.

 _If Sapphire doesn't wake up, I'm taking this personally. She didn't say goodbye to me at the spaceport. She wasn't even there. I haven't even talked to her on the phone since then. If she dies, I swear..._

Garnet's hands moved instinctively to the bottom of her jacket. She gritted her teeth, bending the stiff fabric in different ways, struggling not to verbally express what she was thinking. She honestly didn't care if she tore her uniform or not-she had two more just like it. It wasn't exactly a huge loss, and she wasn't overly strong anyway. She probably couldn't manage to tear the double-layered, stiff fabric. Heck, it had probably broken more than a few scissors.

"You really aren't okay, are you?"

Garnet's eyes shot wide open at the quiet voice. She could feel her own voice cracking as her head rose from her steady gaze at the floor.

"S-Sapphire?"

She took a step forward, going down on one knee beside the hospital bed, reaching out and grasping Sapphire's hand. "You're okay...you're really okay..." Sapphire smiled faintly, sitting up with remarkable ease, seemingly unsurprised when Garnet's arms wrapped tightly around her.

"It's been three years, hasn't it?"

Garnet nodded, pulling back from the hug and placing her hand on Sapphire's cheek. "Yes." Sapphire placed her own hand on top of Garnet's. "But...why were you even here?" She smiled, her glasses slipping down once more, revealing her multicolored eyes. "You didn't say goodbye to me. I can't let that stand, can I?"

Sapphire nodded, smiling faintly. A lock of pale hair fell in front of what used to be her left eye. "Three years, and I can't feel your touch anymore..."

Garnet stiffened. "You can't..."

A simple shake of the head. "No. Nerve damage, I suppose..."

"No. It doesn't work like that. You must have had a head injury or something. You were in a coma for three weeks, of course something stopped functioning..."

Sapphire looked up, her smile returning suddenly. "Instead, I can tell that you need to wash your clothes very badly."

"Well, ya got me there.."

* * *

"What?"

Ruby jumped down from her bed. Garnet stood in her bedroom doorway, smiling a huge smile that Ruby hadn't seen for what felt like forever.

"She's awake, alive, and snarky. Everything's okay." Ruby's own smile lessened slightly at Garnet's fading one. "There's something wrong, isn't there?"

Garnet took a deep breath. "Analgesia. She can't feel physically anymore. It's not fatal, but it is pretty dangerous..." Ruby closed her eyes, keeping a fairly blank expression. "Can she still move?"

"I said Analgesia, not paralysis."

Ruby looked up again. "Then it'll be fine. She knows how to handle herself, unlike someone I could mention." Garnet raised an eyebrow. "Are you talking about me?"

"No, actually I was talking about Amethyst. You're literally a commodore and a skilled pilot. You're flipping hardcore, bro."

"I'm your sister."

"Nevermind."

* * *

Pearl stared up unseeingly at the sky. She was parked on a backroad in the middle of nowhere. In reality, it was a closed highway to New York City, which had been destroyed by a nuclear blast in the late 2700's. Radiation had been eliminated from the area hundreds of years ago, so it was perfectly safe.

She could see the Milky Way clearly. The massive strips of white in the sky were more than clear. Constellation after constellation shone down onto Pearl, lighting the area. Light pollution had been minimized due to the current nature of the Earth. Whole cities had been abandoned, and were now total ghost towns that used to have populations in the millions.

"Only two billion people left on this planet. If only those who abandoned ship knew..."

Pearl turned her eyes to the landscape. The remains of the ancient city stretched before her-they had attempted to rebuild, and had started with highways. Of course, the prject was inconsistent and they had rebuilt roughly one hundredth of the city's former grandeur.

"Who're you talking to?"

Pearl spun around. A woman wearing a military uniform stood behind her, the door to the womans car ajar.

She had long, dyed blonde hair. Dark skin with lighter burn scars that striped her otherwise smooth and clear skin. She looked to be in her thirties, and had a very muscular build.

"I was talking to myself, ah..."

"Sergeant Jasper Heliotrope. And you are?"

Pearl blinked. She was expecting her to be higher ranking. "Head Programmer Pearl Mollusk. Kronos organization."

Jasper Heliotrope raised an eyebrow. "How'd you get to that rank? What are you, eighteen?"

"I'm twenty-five, actually. I was recognized for my outstanding work in the later Titan models, specifically-wait, I don't want to get anyone arrested. Please forget I ever said anything." Jasper raised an eyebrow. "I'm actually one of the ones working under you, Diamond, Quartz, and Crystal."

Pearl blinked. "What's Ame-Oh, right. Is the head of Kronos coming here anytime soon? Or do you also not know?"

"I'm a soldier, ma'am. Intended for fighting purposes only. I don't know anything aside from what my job is." Pearl nodded. "I understand. I'll be going now."

As Pearl drove away, her eyes widened when she looked up at the rearview mirror. Jasper had sent a flare into the air, the triangles interlapping over and over again. She forced her eyes away, knowing what could happen to her if someone knew she had seen this. It probably wasn't very important, but who knows.

She hit the gas. Her small red car sped down the deserted highway at speeds generally considered illegal in all but those races that took a ridiculously long time.

* * *

When she made it home later that night, Pearl flopped down onto her bed before Ruby had a chance to see her. She was probably in her room, listening to music on her phone or something.

Pearl stared up blankly at the ceiling. She could hear the wind pick up outside. Her pale blue eyes remained wide open. Eventually, she covered her eyes with one of her arms. She was interrupted from her silence by her phone ringing. She uncovered her eyes, reached over, and picked up.

"Hello? Who is this?"

 _"Rear Admiral Yellow Diamond. We need you, Ruby Crystal, and Garnet Crystal, to report for duty immediately."_

"Yes, ma'am."

 _"Very good. I expect you to be here within twenty minutes."_

"I understand."

Pearl let Diamond end the call. She stood up and left her room, going past Sapphire's and standing in front of Ruby's. She knocked on the wall next of the curtain.

"Yeah?"

"We need to go to Kronos ASAP. Get your shoes on. We have to hurry, since we're getting Garnet."

After a few minutes, Ruby left her room wearing beat-up boots and a red hoodie. She nodded to Pearl, who stood in front of the door wearing her usual attire. They only took a minute or so to get to the car, where the promptly drove over to pick up Garnet.

After all three of them were in the car, Ruby finally spoke up.

"Garnet, you need a phone, by the way." Garnet nodded in response, leaning her head against the front passenger window. "I know."

"We're here."

* * *

Ruby and Garnet stood in front of the dressing room door awkwardly, waiting for directions. The Enhancement Suits were brand new, and looked almost completely different. No longer black and burgundy, Ruby's was now black and crimson, and Garnet's was purple and red. They fit differently-and besides, it was especially weird for Garnet, considering she hadn't worn hers in over three years. Now had she piloted a Titan. Rumor had it she was going to pilot Titan Three, Atlas.

"Ruby and Garnet Crystal?"

They both looked up at the sound of a woman's voice. She stood at about 5'8, with pointy, pale green hair going out in different directions. She had fairly dark skin, a very common outfit for Kronos, and her eyes covered by rounded glasses. She stood before them, looking down at a clipboard.

"That's us," Garnet said calmly, regaining her calm expression from the awkward one she had before.

"Ruby Crystal, you are to pilot Titan Four, as per usual. Garnet Crystal, you are to pilot Titan Ten. I apologize for the Titan you used last being unusable. It was sunk six months ago."

Garnet shrugged. "Eh, I don't mind."

"Very well. You are dismissed. Report to your Titans immediately."

The two nodded and darted for their Titans. It didn't take long for the cockpits to be inserted into the foreheads. Ruby couldn't help but notice that it was now deeper in and protected by layer upon layer of diamond-reinforced steel, probably, with screens portraying the surroundings via hidden cameras all over the head.

"Titan Ten is go for launch." Ruby jumped slightly at Garnet's voice coming through a surprisingly clear intercom. A video of her shot up from the dashboard in hologram form. They had finally fixed the communication and defense issues.

"Titan Four is go for launch." Ruby looked up at the monitor displaying the scenery just above her. It was as if she were in one of those classic, stereotypical UFOs. She grimaced at the G-force pushing her back into the seat as her Titan shot up towards the surface.

Her eyes immediately widened as she saw the opponent. The other Titans were already out there, even Three-who the hell was piloting it?-facing off against a huge being. It only took a few seconds for Ruby to realize what it was.

A huge space fleet, with countless ships over the city. The sheer size of them stunned Ruby-the largest had to be half a mile long. There where thousands upon thousands of smaller ones, stretching past the horizon. They were clearly armed. The light from their engines and already lit weapons stained the sky red. The size of the fleet dwarfed the twelve Titans, a few tanks, and around five fighters along withe the Supreme Flagship that had come to Earth from Ptolomy recently.

"...It's the enemy forces. This is war."

* * *

 ***Cue Imperial March*  
**


	9. The Earth Has Lost It's Light

Garnet had always considered herself to be a good leader. She held the record of being undefeated in battle, always with minimum casualties. She kept a cool head in battle, constantly thinking of dozens of attacks and ways out, with her unit working like a brand-new machine, complying to orders perfectly. She always changed her position in the battle, darting around with her fighter plane. Unit January was always the first to attack-and always the first guarantee to a victory.

And then she had been transferred to Earth.

It was practically abandoned at this point, with the population constantly dropping. It was a valuable resource, of course. It was where she had been born and raised. But still...she hated it. It had taken her family. Her home. Her classmates. Her city. She had left for a year for military school when she was fifteen, and when she came back...all of New York City had been destroyed. Her home for ten years, and in just a few minutes it had been destroyed. Wiped off the map, never to be revisited.

And now Beach City was going to share the same fate. The place she had begun to call home, ever since she and all of her friends had been sent there as children. The huge fleet moved at a deadly slow pace over the metropolis.

Everyone she cared about was in danger, and instead of a proper fighter, she was stuck in this one-winged coffin. If she had to choose a place to die, it would be in her own little fighter, the Bellona.

Her hands tightened at the controls, her eyes narrowing. "Who's in charge of the fighter ship unit?" Garnet waited expectantly for a moment, before the voice of a young girl came through. "That would be me, Sergeant Oliver De Andromeda." Garnet's eyes widened momentarily, before she regained her composure. "This is Titan Ten pilot Commodore Garnet Crystal. I need you to send a message to the Orbit Fleet. Tell them that the Bellona and Gaia will rise in the stead of Zeus."

 _Not the best code ever by a long shot, but Triangulum knows nicknames and mythology like nobody's business. He'll figure this out._

"Yes ma'am."

Garnet turned her eyes to the monitor. She skimmed the situation, figuring out which ones were flagships. She could spot one, noticing the larger weapons, heavier armor, overall large size, and slightly different markings. "All pilots, aim for the flagship. The ID on the side is..." Garnet took a few large steps to the right, getting to a better angle to see the letters and numbers. "...8400BKA. I repeat, 8400BKA." She lifted her rifle, aligning the crosshairs over the middle of the ship.

"Fire!"

The beams, missiles, and the occasional rock, tree, or segment of a building (Garnet has learned not to question Earth battles) shot up at the flagship. The weapons bounced off harmless, instead destroying the ships in the surrounding formation.

She parted her lips slightly, thinking of a new plan and adjusting the controls calmly. The control panel was different from what she was used to-from a decade ago-and she had been through one simulation. In other words, she was having no problem doing this.

"Just like a fighter plane...ration your ammo, Garnet," she whispered, lifting her beam rifle at an average ship, firing. The beam went right through, going through another two other ships before dissipating. The explosions from the vessels knocked back a few fighter planes, destroyed a tank, and knocked someone's Titan onto the ground.

"Garnet, you doing alright?"

"Yes, Ruby."

She could sense Ruby's relief at this statement without even turning her head to look. She hated to worry her sister like this, but she didn't have a choice. She couldn't back down for a petty reason like that. "I'm shutting down communications with my Titan for a second. I need to talk to the people back at Headquarters." Garnet adjusted something on a screen, and the holographic images disappeared. She flipped a switch. "Commodore Garnet Crystal, Titan Ten. Kronos, I am requesting total evacuation of headquarters and permission to lure the enemy into low Earth orbit."

"This is Rear Admiral Yellow Diamond. We are in the process of evacuating all non-vital faculty, family members, and government officials. I will need more information on your strategy in order for permission to be granted."

Garnet nodded, although she knew that it was audio-only. "Yes Ma'am. I am suggesting leaking a set of false orders implying that all of Earth's main governmental figures have already been moved to the Triangulum Fleet that should be nearing here. Trust me to create the set of orders."

"And how do you expect me to get permission to do that? This is not my territory. I have almost no power here. This is merely an extended visit from Ptolomy." Yellow Diamond responded with that same monotone that Garnet had always despised. She recognized that she herself came off as emotionless, but still...she had to cooperate. "I am suggesting martial law. I've reviewed the officers in this area. You are the highest ranking within a two hundred mile radius. I will request your unoccupied Flagship to come with us as well, assuming that you are not on it."

Garnet overhead a few brief shouts. This wasn't a private conversation. Damn that Rose Quartz for those ridiculous laws...

"I approve of your plan. You will need spacesuits and a solid way to re-enter Earth's atmosphere. The Triangulum Fleet is within sight of the Lunar Colonies. You may take off as soon as possible."

"Thank you, Ma'am. I'll brief my comrades and begin the operation immediately. Shutting off communications." Garnet cut off her line to Kronos, switching back on the one to the other fighters. "All ground fighters, retreat immediately. Titans and Fighters, I am issuing false communications to leak to the Republic forces. We will lure them into orbit, where we will crush them with the aid of the Triangulum Fleet. If you are leaking any air, retreat with the ground fighters."

Garnet watched as all of the tanks retreated, along with Titan Five. Apparently, Amethyst had been in a fight that had damaged her Titan recently. Not surprising. She sent the false orders with ease, then sent t the actual ones-in Egyptian hieroglyphs that had word order scrambled-on a much tighter line with layer after layer of protective coding. She dodged the shots that the ascending enemy fleet sent raining them. She didn't think any of the hurried shots had hit-before she felt as though her abdomen had been partially cut out.

"Holy crap..." Garnet mumbled, realizing that her titan was flat on it's back. The force of a missile exploding in front of her had flattened the nearby area and knocked a chunk out of her titan. She turned her head, checking the communications system. "Anyone else hit?" She was met by a chorus of No's.

"Uh...Garnet? Are you okay?"

Garnet nodded, getting back on her feet. "I've had worse than this. Ever tell you about the time I shot into a moving spaceship?"

"Um, no," Ruby mumbled in a rather alarmed manner. "Yeah, I didn't really remember it until recently." Garnet looked up at the rapidly disappearing Fleet. "Titans, Fighters! Launch!"

Garnet manipulated the controls for a moment until she figured out the way to get off Earth. She shot straight up, knocked back into her seat by the G-force, despite the high-tech protection. She could feel the armor expanding, the overlapping plates widening and providing a slightly more aerodynamic shape. After a few minutes she had reached orbit-took a moment to admire the surprisingly dark surface of the Earth, despite the amazing technology Humans had developed.

"is everyone up?" Garnet asked. She was surprised to find that she was actually the last one up. Even the fighters, which didn't have as much power as the Titans, had beat her. Probably because of her inexperience with Titan piloting.

"Good. Retreat to the Triangulum Fleet. I'll lead the way." Garnet adjusted the controls for a second before moving forward rapidly towards the distant-but clearly huge-fleet. She looked down at the control panel, trying to figure the communication system. At long last(about forty-five seconds), she figured it out. It was a pretty simple hologram, it turned out. "Commodore Garnet Crystal. Triangulum Fleet, the Titan and Fighter units have successfully reached outer orbit and we are requesting your help."

"Fleet Admiral Walter Triangulum. I received your coded message. We will assist in any way we can." Garnet nodded briskly down at the holographic screen portraying Triangulum's face. "Thank you, sir. Ending communication."

After she was sure audio was off, Garnet let out a heavy breath and scanned her monitor for the Republic Fleet. After a moment, she caught sight of it. It was stationary, seemingly in much lower Earth orbit. She let the Triangulum Fleet envelope her tiny group. She silently cursed her lack of a proper fighter-Titans were powerful and all, but they weren't designed for space battles. It was possible, of course, but they were designed to battle Fae. Not humans. Everyone single one of the Titan pilots would be better off with a proper Fighter.

And then the battle began with a quickness unique to Space Battles. Completely silent, yet with enough destructive power to destroy colonies.

She maintained her blank facade, even as a shot grazed her hand.

* * *

 **Facade. Funny word. You can't sound it out unless you're some weirdo.  
**

 **StevenBomb 3.0+1.0 (totally not) The End comes out soon.**


	10. She Lives With The Hatred

**I'm backtracking. Ruby is actually like six and a half feet tall, measuring systems have changed dramatically.(999 Years. Remember?)**

* * *

Ruby, to be honest, was kinda freaking out.

Garnet refused to give proper orders, Sapphire wasn't there, and Triangulum was a huge damn jerk who completely ignored the Titans and Fighters, sending out his own little Fighters and pretty much crushing the enemy fleet.

But they were not without their own losses.

Ruby had lost count at thirty-seven ships going down through the course of the battle. Two of the fighters that had come from Earth had been shot down already, with very few Titans undamaged-which, of course, meant that the pilots were suffering and damn near unable to pilot.

Then she overheard something.

"Commodore Crystal! Fall back!"

Ruby jerked her head up. Garnet was swiftly evading shots, heading rapidly towards the enemy fleet. Her Titan was damaged and she seemed to be struggling, but was taking out enemy ship after enemy ship. The debris formed a barrier that kept the Titans from advancing. Ruby leaned forward, trying to look through the drifting debris mixed with broken hulls of battleships. "Garnet! What the hell are you doing?"

"I'm going to board the flagship."

"WHAT?"

"By board, I mean shoot a hole in it, reach in, and wreak havoc."

"...Oh. YOu're still a huge idiot."

"Mhm."

* * *

Garnet was terrified, and she was even more terrified to admit it.

The success of her completely unprecedented and spontanious actions that she would probably get arrested for(it would be an approvement) would change the war. She wasn't sure, but that flagship probably had some big-name figurehead with too much power for their own good.

She stared at the monitor in front of her, moving forward rapidly, shooting holes in every ship that tried to get her. She was so caught up in her fighting that she didn't notice that her foot clanged against the side of the Head Flagship. After a moment, she swung her gun around and pressed it against the side. Action ceased immediately as the end of the massive rifle latched onto the ship. Her hand tightened on the trigger, her eyes narrowing.

"Garnet Crystal. Do not move."

Her eyes shot wide open as a deadly calm voice reached her. She could picture the expression on that horrible woman's face as she spoke her orders. It took Garnet all the courage in her body to reply. "I must question your orders. This shot would put us one step ahead."

"The losses from the retaliating forces would be fatal."

Garnet bit back her initial retort(that would land her a few years in prison). "I understand, High Admiral."

She could here Amethyst say something along the lines of, "Mom?" Garnet switched off communications, retreating swiftly, shooting down more ships than she could count. Her mismatched eyes were wide with anger and fear. After she reached her allies once more, she realized that the enemy Fleet was retreating. After a moment of watching the scene before her, Garnet suddenly cried out, doubling over and clutching her stomach. The pain from the damages on the outside of her Titan hadn't fully registered until she wasn't doing anything. She reached over after a moment, switching communications back on.

"Garnet, they couldn't get through to you. We're retreating to the flagship."

"Yes."

It only took a few minutes for her to get to the flagship. Seconds after she docked, she pulled off every single one of the connections. She knew that the lights in the eyes of the Titan were probably fading by down. She ejected, stepped out, and pushed herself to the floor. The zero-G took a moment to adjust to, but training kicked in after a few seconds.

"Commodore Garnet Crystal?"

"That is me."

"You are to report to the bridge immediately."

Garnet nodded and headed off. She had been stationed on this ship for a while, so she was used to it. Still took her thirty minutes, though. Big ship.

She wasn't surprised to see the tall, thin man shouting at his subordinates. He gestured overdramatically, a tall woman with curly pink hair stanidng behind him, arms crossed. Garnet bit back an angry greeting when she saw the pink-haired woman.

"Sir!"

Garnet saluted stiffly as Triangulum turned around abruptly. "Oh, Crystal! Don't act like that in a battle again, okay? You're not a fighter pilot anymore. It was already strange and unorthodox behavior for a Commodore such as yourself to be among Privates and the such, in the middle of dogfights that don't turn the tide at all-"

"I do not mind my post, Sir. I believe that I am less adapt at leading positions when not in the thick of battle." Triangulum gestured overdramatically once more at this. "But you're a strategical genius!" Garnet bit her lip. "I will await placement orders, Sir. I will take my leave." Garnet briefly saluted once more, spun around, and left. She couldn't stand taking orders from that emotion-driven idiot. How the hell did he even get to that position? Well, probably favoritism. Like her.

Triangulum stared after her for a moment. "Why's she so formal?"

Fleet Admiral Quartz turn her head slightly. "It's a quirk of her's. I was her adoptive mother from when she was twelve onward."

* * *

Amethyst and Ruby stood at an intersection in the maze of hallways, hopelessly lost.

"So...how long does it take to starve to death?" Amethyst speculated idly.

Garnet turned the corner right then, coming face-to-face with the two. "You should go to the bridge. I'm going to change. See you later. Ask the first person you see where the bridge is."

Ruby watched her go, eyes narrowed in concern.

* * *

 **Yeah, short chapter, I know. Steven Bomb 4.0 This Is (not) The End of our Sanity completely changed my views on everything and my theories were horribly wrong, okay? (Thought Ruby and Sapphire were defective runts like Amethyst.)  
**

 **Anyway, I'm probably going to have an intense scene with Rose and Garnet facing off. As for the favoritism towards Garnet I mentioned, that'll be relevant like next chapter, so...**


	11. Anything But Human

**Yeah, yeah, short chapter...**

* * *

Pearl stared up at the night skies. There were so many stars-to think that three hundred ago they had been obscured by the city lights, exactly where she stood. Broken concrete stuck up in jagged spikes around her, the broken shells of buildings casting long shadows from the moonlight, her own shadow elongated. She was the only living soul within the bounds of this massive city of ruins, the site of a disaster that had cost millions of lives. And they had never even rebuilt.

She started to walk. Pearl knew where she was going-she had to see this with her own eyes.

The sight of ruin, somehow, brought an unsettling sense of familiarity. She came here often, of course, but only to the outskirts. She had never been this far in before. Her footsteps echoed throughout the abandoned city. The landscape became more and more barren as she neared ground zero. Towards the outskirts, it had been a sight of devastation, that was sure. But this far in...it was stunning.

At long last, she saw a small sign commemorating the lives lost in the tragic battle that had taken place here, as a result of WW12. Although, it was innacurate to call the world wars at all, even back then. They were on a galactic scale, now. Force of habit, probably. Humans just don't want to change. Even thouh most had forsaken Earth, even though it was merely a memory...Just as the Republic of Mars would never last forever. Not as long as humanity stayed as unchanging and consistent, just as they had though thousands of years.

She had no idea who had put up the sign. No one did, really. She kept walking until reached it, crouching and placing her hand on the metal, her fingers gently sweeping the embedded shells and other stones. It was worn down, to say the least, but by some miracle it was still readable...despite the massive language changes. She stared down at the sign for a moment, before her eyes widening in shock. "...That's impossible...this is my handwriting!"

"You've found something you shouldn't have, little girl."

Pearl spun around. Yellow Diamond was there, directly behind her. She towered over Pearl's crouched figure, looking as though she was some immortal being, fearsome golden eyes glinting in the minimum light. For the first time since Pearl had worked with her, her eyes were completely uncovered, her usual reflective glasses nowhere to be seen. Yellow Diamond looked like an ancient goddess, looking anything but human.

"What are you, Yellow Diamond?"

* * *

Garnet pulled her knees to her chest, sitting on the bed of her current room on the massive flagship. She stared down at the sheet, her mismatched eyes just as blank as they always were.

The lights flickering pulled her out of her thoughts. She looked up at the embedded lights, freaked out by the electrical problems. She stood up, only to immediately hit the ground once more. The ship was lurching from side to side, seemingly spinning as well. Garnet somehow managed to stand, grabbing a hold of the embedded shelves in the wall. She reached over, switching on the monitor for planetary observation. When she looked at the Earth, her eyes narrowed in confusion.

It was dark. Completely, horribly dark. Normally there would be city lights sprawling across the dark side of the planet, but instead, there was only silence. She double-checked, making sure that this wasn't the Pacific.

No. They were directly over the Free States American Alliance. The former United States of America.

Garnet's eyes turned back to the wall, her eyes closing tightly as a fierce headache pounded in her head. She sunk to her knees as the spinning ceased. A computer program said something about brief mechanical failure over the intercom. Garnet barely heard it, though. Confusing images of long ago eras flashed before her eyes before everything turned to black.

* * *

Steven Universe and Connie Mahaeshwarren swung their feet under the chairs they sat upon. Both had mild headaches. Neither was trained to notice, nor care. The mental fortifications erected when they were very young kept away unwanted memories.

Both stared at the holographic presentation before them. Neither saw it, nor heard the bland droning of their instructor. Their dark eyes focused on something no one else saw. Despite their superiors' best efforts, both were completely absent-they were finally realizing just what was happening.

Almost two thousand miles away, Sapphire stared out of her window at the bright white light reaching out from the distant sun. She smiled faintly, hair falling in front of her eyes as her hands tightened into fists. She remained perfectly stationary, her small, terrifying smile remaining the same as she slowly lifted her head, right eye opened wide.

"I've always hated being told I'm living a lie."

* * *

 **...I bet you know what's going on now. I mean, I'm making it pretty obvious.**

 **coughcoughtherewasanotheramericanrevolutionafewcenturiesbeforethishappenscoughcough**


End file.
